Friends of Rural New York

State Awards $420,000 Grant For Inhumane Practice
NEW YORK---Your tax dollars at work. The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) has awarded a $420,000 grant to a farm that force-feeds ducks to expand their livers a startling 10 times the normal size---an inhumane practice used to mass produce foie grass, according to State Sen. Liz Krueger.

Foie grass is a delicacy often found in French restaurants.

To enlarge the duck’s liver, the source of meat used to make foie gras, the farm inserts a tube into the esophagus of each duck and three times every day the farmers pour approximately one cup of corn pellets directly into each duck’s stomach. This takes place every day over a four-week period.

“The duck’s livers are forcibly grown to such extreme measures that the animal often dies prematurely due to their internal organs exploding inside their bodies. It is simply mind-boggling the ESDC would find the subsidizing of the cruelty to animals to be an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars,” Krueger said.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the recipient of the nearly half-million dollar grant says the money will be used to produce two manure treatment facilities as well as to renovate the building that houses the animals. The farm intends to add only 10 employees to their current staff of 150 over the next three years, all the while implementing a 10% increase in the number of ducks the farm processes annually, reaching 325,000.

Krueger added, “The paltry economic benefits the local community may reap fails to justify the way these animals are handled, and fails to show New York taxpayers their dollars will be used in a responsible way. As the production and sale of foie gras is being banned by state legislatures and city councils across the country, now is not the time for the State of New York to spend taxpayer dollars bucking this trend.” New York is one of only two states who continue to produce foie gras.

Krueger noted, “this grant is just the latest in a series of questionable funding decisions by the ESDC. In 2004, fully 40 percent of ESDC-funded projects were out of compliance with job creation goals according to ESDC’s own report. Less than half of the projects not meeting these goals were penalized in any way.”

Sen. Krueger has introduced legislation (S.5921) to increase accountability for these kinds of corporate subsidy deals. The Corporate Accountability for Tax Expenditures Act would require that State economic assistance provided by any state agency or public authority must be based on the terms of a standardized written incentive agreement. The legislation mandates that certain development assistance agreements be submitted to the Department of Taxation and Finance, and also provides that if a business fails to create or retain the specified number of jobs and breaks the contract, the business will no longer qualify for State economic assistance.

“This grant reflects the poor judgment of the ESDC when operating within a system which fails to mandate transparency and accountability when dispensing taxpayer dollars to corporations,” Krueger declared. “Giving nearly half-million dollars to an organization that fails to provide substantive local economic impact in terms of jobs, ads insult to injury for the already inhumane and offensive animal rights violations occurring at the Hudson Valley Foie Gras Farm.” 5-27-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette
May 27, 2006

How many would they get if they actually enforced the law in Cayuga County?

Federal agents took the battle against illegal immigration to the farm community of Springville on Friday, arresting 29 Mexican nationals who had been working for a large nursery business there.
The Mexicans were arrested early in the morning, shortly after they boarded vans that were supposed to take them to tree farms operated by Schichtel Nursery in the Springville area. Police called it one of the biggest roundups of illegal aliens in Western New York in the past five years.

Most of those arrested are expected to be sent back to Mexico on an airliner later today. “We’ll be flying them out of [Buffalo Niagara International] Airport, right to the Mexico border, and then releasing them into Mexico after that,” said Peter J. Smith, a supervising agent for U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement. “This is right in line with the president’s plans to have illegals sent back immediately.”

Smith led a team of 50 federal agents and state troopers who stopped vans carrying the farm workers between 5:45 and 7:30 a.m. The workers had been been picked up at their living quarters - a small, nondescript motel on Route 219 in Springville and three houses in nearby West Valley.

“Vamos! Vamos!” agents told the workers, instructing them in Spanish to get moving.
Each worker was searched at least twice for weapons, handcuffed and put into a white Homeland Security Department bus with steel bars over the windows. Each worker was taken back to the place where he had been staying and then allowed to put his belongings in one white plastic bag, supplied by federal agents.

“If it doesn’t fit in that bag, they unfortunately can’t take it back with them to Mexico,” Smith said.

The vans and the living quarters were all owned by Schichtel Nursery, based in Orchard Park, authorities said.

According to Smith, agents have not yet determined whether the nursery owners or a Rochester-based migrant worker contractor knowingly hired illegal aliens.

“Who knew what about these workers? Why were they hired? Were all the appropriate documents in order? Those are the questions we’ll ask before we would file any criminal charges in this case,” Smith said.

George Schichtel, owner of the nursery business, and Cliff DeMay, his labor contractor, both insisted they never knowingly hire illegal aliens.

“[DeMay] hires all the migrant workers for us, and he checks all the documentation,” Schichtel said. “We hire people based on the documentation that he gives. As far as we know, he’s very reliable.”

All of the men who were arrested were excellent workers and never caused any problems, Schichtel said.

DeMay said he has been contracting farm laborers for 20 years. He said he finds workers for about 300 farms all over the state, including many in Western New York.

He said the federal government should be held to blame for the estimated 12 million undocumented aliens living in the United States.

Most of the workers arrested Friday entered this country through its southern border, moving from state to state, depending on weather and harvest seasons.

“It’s a shame they’re taking these good people away when they all might be offered amnesty in a few weeks,” DeMay said, referring to the Mexicans who were arrested. “This will all change when lawmakers go out to their golf courses and find the grass is up to their knees . . . or the price of food goes way up because we don’t have these workers.”

DeMay said he does his best to verify that workers are legal aliens, based on interviews with workers and identification documents they provide. He said the government could solve the problem by supplying each immigrant farm worker “a simple ID card that everyone could use.”

“Us employers are being sacrificed because the government can’t do its job at the border and keep illegal aliens out of the country,” DeMay said.

Smith declined to comment on the statements, saying he will wait to see what unfolds in the criminal investigation.

In a national address Monday, President Bush announced his intention to expedite the removal of illegal aliens caught in the United States. The president said most illegals caught in this country are Mexicans and said most will be escorted back to Mexico within 24 hours of their capture.

Those arrested Friday will be asked whether they are willing to be deported immediately or prefer to fight deportation through legal proceedings, Smith said. He added that the workers were arrested administratively, not criminally, so any proceedings would be held before immigration judges.

“If they want to oppose it, they’ll be kept in detention facilities while they do that,” Smith said. “If they don’t fight it, we will be sending them back [today].”

None of the workers arrested Friday gave agents any trouble. Agents wore holstered guns and bulletproof vests during the arrests but never drew their weapons, Smith said.

“Their instructions are not to draw the guns unless something happens that would cause them to draw them,” Smith said.

Some of those arrested Friday looked confused and fearful. Others smiled, acting as though they had been through the same routine before. At times, there were communications difficulties, even though many of the agents involved in the arrests were bilingual.

“Familia? What is your last name?” an agent asked one of the workers.

“Julio,” the worker said.

“Julio what?” the agent asked.

“Si,” the worker said.

“Julio Garcia, Julio Fernandez, or what?” the agent asked.

“Julio Fernandez,” the worker said.

Five other workers from the same group were arrested Wednesday night by the Erie County Sheriff’s Department and also will face deportation proceedings, Smith said.
Buffalo News 5/20/06

Community Water Rights Protection Workshop
Date: June 9-10, 2006
Location: Rural-Urban Center, 208 Broadway, Montour Falls
Why:  Learn how to protect our local water resources from corporate control

Alarmed that water resources in the Finger Lakes will be targeted by large corporate water companies for privatization of municipal water services and for mining bottled water, members of the Finger Lakes Progressive Coalition and the Finger Lakes Group of the Sierra Club have organized a Water Rights Protection Workshop to be held June 9-10, 2006, at the Rural-Urban Center in Montour Falls.  The workshop is designed for the general public to learn what can be done to prevent corporate control of water resources and services in the Finger Lakes.

“Here in the Finger Lakes we take for granted ample supplies of fresh water, but as fresh water becomes an increasingly valuable commodity, large corporations are setting their sights on the giant reservoirs of fresh water in our lakes and aquifers for distribution and profit,” said Rachel Treichler of Hammondsport, a member of the Sierra Club, and one of the organizers of the program.

“Members of the Finger Lakes Progressives are watching water privatization efforts in surrounding states; including Pennsylvania and N. H., with alarm,” Jack Ossont of Yates county, coordinator of the Progressive Coalition, remarked. “Folks in the Finger Lakes have always regarded water as a resource for the use of all and we have organized this workshop to help us keep it that way.”

The workshop will be led by two nationally-known activists on community water issues: Victoria Kaplan, national organizer of the Water for All Campaign with Food & Water Watch in Washington DC, and Ruth Caplan, national coordinator of the Alliance for Democracy’s Defending Water for Life campaign and chair of Sierra Club’s national Water Privatization Task Force. Their presentations will show what communities can do when municipal water and sewer services are targeted for corporate take-overs and when local water resources are targeted by water bottling companies. The workshop will feature discussion of who has the rights to make decisions about water usage in a community and what local communities are doing in the Finger Lakes. People are invited to bring their stories to share.

“From Mt. Shasta, California to Bigelow Mountain in Maine, Nestle and other giant corporations are pursuing big profits pumping pristine water from America’s gems of nature to put in little plastic bottles”, warns Ruth Caplan. “Now is the time to act, if you don’t want this to happen to the Finger Lakes.”

“Communities around the country and around the world have experienced major problems when a corporation gets control of their water--from rate increases to declining customer service,” said Victoria Kaplan. “Luckily, residents of the Finger Lakes region have a great opportunity right now to protect their water for future generations.”

The workshop is being held the evening of Friday, June 9 and the day of Saturday, June 10 at the Rural-Urban Center, 208 Broadway, in Montour Falls. It is free and open to the public. There is a suggested donation of $10 on Saturday. $5 charge for lunch on Sat.

Friday’s program, which begins at 7:00 pm, features a showing of the prize-winning documentary, THIRST, and a discussion of the issues raised by the film. The 62 minute documentary looks at the corporate drive to control and profit from our water and shows the global scope of the debate over water rights. Is water part of a shared commons, a human right for all people? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded in a global marketplace? THIRST tells the stories of communities in Bolivia, India, and the United States that are asking these fundamental questions, as water becomes the most valuable global resource of the 21st Century.

Saturday’s program begins at 10:00 am and features in-depth presentations and discussions among those in attendance. In the morning, Victoria Kaplan will address municipal privatization issues and tell us how global trade talks threaten U.S. municipal water services. Ruth Caplan will talk about how water bottling companies are taking local water supplies and what communities are doing about it. In the afternoon, everyone will discuss what is happening in the Finger Lakes area. The program ends at 3:30.

The workshop schedule is at: http://www.ecobooks.com/fingerlakeswaterworkshop.html .  Contact Rachel to reserve a space: 607-569-2114 or

About the Presenters

Victoria Kaplan is a national organizer for the Water for All Campaign at Food & Water Watch in Washington, DC. She works with community groups and local elected officials who want to strengthen public water works and resist water privatization efforts. Ruth Caplan, also from Washington DC, is National Campaign Coordinator for the Alliance for Democracy’s Defending Water for Life Campaign. In 2003, she helped to organize the Water Allies Network, a diverse national network of people and groups who believe “secure and equitable access to clean water is a human right and must be protected for all generations and all living things.” Ruth Caplan’s environmental career began in New York. She was a founding member of Ecology Action of Oswego NY in 1971 and played a key role in regional organizing and successful legal appeals that prevented the construction of three nuclear units on Lake Ontario. Caplan is also chair of the national Sierra Club’s Water Privatization Task Force. In 2004, she received the national Sierra Club’s Special Service Award for her work on corporate accountability, international trade, water privatization, and energy policy.

Learn more about Food and Water Watch at http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/waterprivatization
Learn more about the Alliance for Democracy Defending Water for Life Campaign at http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/water
Learn more about the Sierra Club Water Privatization Task Force at http://www.sierraclub.org/cac/water/
Learn more about the Finger Lakes Group of the Sierra Club at http://newyork.sierraclub.org/fingerlakes/
Learn more about New York Democracy Schools at http://www.ecobooks.com/FLdemocracyschool.htm

Colt racing in today’s Kentucky Derby fed special alfalfa-timothy hay.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
By Scott Rapp
Staff writer
Pardon Genoa hay farmers John Berry and Sjana McClure-Berry if they have trouble reining in their pride when Ithaca-bred colt Sharp Humor bolts from the starting gate at today’s Kentucky Derby.

The 3-year-old bay horse, a half-brother to 2003 Derby victor Funny Cide, was raised on the couple’s high-octane hay for most of his all-important, first two developing years.

He is the second horse to run for the Derby roses thanks in part to Berry’s potent alfalfa-timothy hay. The other? Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner, McClure-Berry said.

“We’re very proud because this is our second Derby horse to eat our hay. . . . It’s not our nature to tout something like this . . . but we take pride in making a good product,” she said.

Like race cars that need high-octane fuel, Triple Crown racehorses require hay that’s rich in protein and minerals, and free from dust and molds to compete

and endure in their grueling sport.

McClure-Berry and her husband nailed their commercial market years ago making and selling high-protein hay for high-performance horses in New York, Florida and Virginia, and polo ponies in Argentina.

They produce about 420 tons of hay a year off of their two farms in southern Cayuga County, said McClure-Berry, a horse lover who keeps four horses and rides with a fox hunting club in Geneseo, south of Rochester.

She and her husband have sold hay to Sharp Humor’s part-owners, Ithaca’s Pat and Chris Purdy, since the mid-1990s. They bred the colt at their “Ivy League” farm and fed the hay to both him and his mother before he was shipped to Morrisville State College to be trained.

“He was on that hay almost half of his life. That is their developmental stage (for bones and muscles) and it’s key to their development. It’s a critical time from the time they’re born to their yearling year,” Chris Purdy said in a telephone interview from Churchill Downs racetrack in Lexington, Ky., this week.

The Purdys buy about 70 percent to 80 percent of their hay from the Genoa couple to feed their 35 to 40 thoroughbred horses.

“They have wonderful hay. . . . It’s always good,” Pat Purdy said.

McClure-Berry said mixed-alfalfa hay made in Central New York draws raves from serious horse owners for two reasons.

First, alfalfa gushes with muscle-building protein and flourishes best in climates with warm summer days and cool nights - like those in Central New York, she said.

Secondly, her farm - like many in Upstate New York - sits atop a large limestone ridge that fortifies hay crops grown in its soil with extra minerals that make for strong dense bones that racehorses need.

“The old-timers say, ‘Buy your horses in Kentucky, raise them in Ireland and feed them Upstate New York hay,’ “ she said.

Someday, the Purdys and McClure-Berry and her husband may look back on today’s race as reaching the heydays in their respective professions. For now, both couples are gambling on Sharp Humor to run strong out of the ninth pole position in today’s derby.

McClure-Berry said she is going to bet $20 on him to win, place and show and then waxed philosophically about her feelings toward Sharp Humor’s finish in the race.

“I just think the fact that he’s there is a win in itself,” she said.

© 2006 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.

Congress may exempt factory farms from pollution laws
Large agribusiness companies are pushing their friends in Congress to exempt factory farms from the pollution reporting and cleanup provisions in key pollution laws. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, also known as Superfund) and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) provide an essential safety net for protecting water supplies from livestock pollution and for providing warnings of toxic air emissions from factory farms. Over 140 representatives are supporting a bill, H.R. 4341, that would give this sweetheart deal to factory farms. The bill may soon be attached to a “must-pass” spending bill in an effort to speed this ill-conceived measure through Congress. Please call your representative and urge him or her to oppose this dangerous legislation. To learn more, read the Sierra Club’s fact sheet (pdf) on this issue:
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_environment/Fact-Sheet-on-Congressman-Hall-s-Legislation-4-18-06.pdf
Click here to find your representative.
http://ucsaction.org/ucsaction/leg-lookup/search.tcl

As Compassionate Consumers President Adam Durand went on trial last week for charges by Wegmans Food Markets (see FAW Number 15, Volume 6 ), Animal Rights International tried to run a full-page advertisement with the headline “Did Your Wegmans Egg Share a Cage With a Corpse?” in a Rochester, N.Y. newspaper. However, the publisher deemed the ad, which featured a photo of a decomposed hen in a cage with live hens, distasteful in light of the fact that family patriarch Robert Wegman died recently. The group was asked to remove the photo, but they declined to do so and the ad did not run. Durand says the group’s fight to stop Wegmans from raising hens in cages will continue and he plans to distribute a second film that includes information about his legal battles. An extensive article about the trial is available on-line.

Hen Activist Says the War on Cages Will Go On
The New York Times, Michelle York, May 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/nyregion/07hens.html

From Farmed Animal Watch

The USDA is seeking public comments on revisions it has made to the National Organic Program regarding pasture access for organic dairy cattle. Two of the largest organic dairy companies in the nation, Horizon Organic (a subsidiary of Dean Foods), a supplier to Wal-Mart and many health food stores; and Aurora Organic, a supplier of private brand name organic milk to Costco, Safeway, Giant, Wild Oats and others, are purchasing the majority of their milk from so-called organic feedlot dairies where the cows are kept in intensive confinement, with little or no access to pasture. Together, Horizon and Aurora control nearly 65% of the organic dairy market. Recent scientific studies have shown that humanely raised, grass-fed dairy and beef are qualitatively better for human health and the environment. Take action to close the loopholes in organic standards that currently allow factory farm dairies to call their products “organic”. http://www.organicconsumers.org/nosb2.htm

Filmmaker exposed appalling conditions at Wegman’s
See http://www.WegmansCruelty.com

ROCHESTER, N.Y. An animal-rights activist who sneaked into an egg factory to videotape poor living conditions of hens was acquitted today on felony burglary charges but convicted of criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor.

Adam Durand denied on the stand that he broke into the egg farm during three nighttime visits in 2004. He said he climbed in through a hole in a building wall. He also maintained he had no intention of removing any birds.

He said fellow activists took away 11 hens because they were sick or dying.

A jury in Wayne County found Durand not guilty of third-degree burglary, which is punishable by up to seven years in prison, as well as three counts of petit larceny. Durand freely admitted entering the building where 700-thousand hens crammed into wire cages produce more than a half-million eggs a day.

His lawyer said the maximum jail sentence on the trespassing conviction would be six months, but that jail time isn’t usually given for such a low-level offense.

Sentencing was set for May 16th.

About 95 percent of the nation’s eggs are produced at caged-hen egg farms, and Durand’s group wants to alert the public to a practice it considers cruel and neglectful.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press.
.

Adam Durand filmed appalling conditions at Wegman’s Egg Factory.
See the film at http://www.compassionateconsumers.org
and
http://www.Wegmanscruelty.com

ROCHESTER, N.Y. An animal-rights activist who sneaked into an egg factory to videotape poor living conditions of hens was acquitted today on felony burglary charges but convicted of criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor.

Adam Durand denied on the stand that he broke into the egg farm during three nighttime visits in 2004. He said he climbed in through a hole in a building wall. He also maintained he had no intention of removing any birds.

He said fellow activists took away 11 hens because they were sick or dying.

A jury in Wayne County found Durand not guilty of third-degree burglary, which is punishable by up to seven years in prison, as well as three counts of petit larceny. Durand freely admitted entering the building where 700-thousand hens crammed into wire cages produce more than a half-million eggs a day.

His lawyer said the maximum jail sentence on the trespassing conviction would be six months, but that jail time isn’t usually given for such a low-level offense.

Sentencing was set for May 16th.

About 95 percent of the nation’s eggs are produced at caged-hen egg farms, and Durand’s group wants to alert the public to a practice it considers cruel and neglectful.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press

By Linda Ober / The Citizen
Saturday, April 29, 2006 11:54 PM EDT

Since filing a lawsuit against Willet Dairy in 2002, most of the seven original plaintiffs have sought greener pastures.

“All but one of the plaintiffs have now vacated,” said Gary Abraham, attorney for the now nine people who have signed onto the citizens suit against the large Genoa-based dairy. “They’ve been forced out of their homes - on doctor’s orders.”

The only one of the original seven plaintiffs holding out is Fred Coon, an 85-year-old man whose family has lived on his current property long before the dairy’s expansion. That land has suffered from the dairy manure that sometimes flows into Coon’s swimming pond, Abraham said, and Coon gets spontaneous sores on his face due to the hydrogen sulfide and ammonia emitted from the dairy’s alleged excessive spreading.

But to David Cook, Willet Dairy’s attorney, such allegations are baseless.

Cook believes the dairy is

actually one of the best-managed farms in terms of environmental protection. It doesn’t spread manure excessively, he said, and is not violating the Clean Water Act, as the suit alleges.

Any health problems the plaintiffs are claiming have no factual ground to stand on, he added.

“They have not produced ... one piece of evidence to show any causal link between the farms and problems that they are claiming,” Cook said.

In 2002, seven southern Cayuga County residents filed a citizens suit under the Clean Water Act against dairy operators Dennis and Scott Eldred. An eighth plaintiff later joined on, and in 2004, a near-identical suit arose on behalf of a child of two of the original plaintiffs.

Willet Dairy is the largest dairy farm in New York state based on its herd size, if all four of its facilities are considered, said Diane Carlton, DEC regional director for public affairs and education. In total, the dairy has about 7,000 cows, said Lyn Odell, the dairy’s operations officer. Odell declined to comment on any of the specific allegations and referred further questions to Cook.

Now, after years of interviews, requests for documents and depositions on both sides, Cook and Abraham are hopeful the suit may soon be resolved, albeit with opposing outcomes. They have each recently filed motions for summary judgment in the federal district court in Syracuse.

Cook has also filed a Daubert motion, which would disallow expert testimony of someone who has a lack of expertise or has used questionable science to obtain information. Such is the case with the doctor the plaintiffs are employing to confirm that the farm has caused irreversible neurological damage to one of the plaintiffs, Cook said.

In addition to the amount of time both the plaintiffs and defendants have invested, there is also a substantial amount of money at stake.

The plaintiffs, all but one who live or lived in close proximity to the dairy’s main facility in East Genoa, are seeking $150,000 in damages and $250,000 in punitive damages per plaintiff.

In addition to seeing Willet Dairy clean up the alleged pollution, the claimants also want the farm to pay civil penalties to the U.S. Treasury - up to $31,500 per day per violation (the citizens suit section of the federal Clean Water Act mandates that any violations penalties are paid to the treasury) and their litigation expenses.

The cost of the suit for Willet Dairy has been “an enormous amount,” Cook said. He declined to give an actual amount but said that “it’s easily a six-figure number.”

In an effort to alleviate some of this financial burden, the New York Farm Bureau’s Legal Defense Fund has allocated $7,500 to underwrite the dairy’s defense costs.

“This case has been out there for a while, and it does have a significant impact,” said Elizabeth Dribusch, general counsel for the New York Farm Bureau. “It could open the floodgates for other suits against other farmers in the state.”

The plaintiffs seem to want to stop all manure-spreading in general, Dribusch said, but such spreading is heavily regulated by state and federal rules and is an important part of a dairy’s operations.

Some of the claims of the plaintiffs are “quite vague,” Dribusch noted.

One of the main issues involved is whether or not Willet Dairy violated the Clean Water Act and its concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) permit, distributed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“The general CAFO permit requires manure be spread at an agronomic rate,” Abraham said. “We’re alleging that they spread excessively, in violation of the limits proposed on them by their nutrient management plan. There are scores of fields that they overapply on.”

This has not only alienated neighbors but also leads to runoff onto the plaintiffs’ properties and into tributaries that connect to Owasco and Cayuga lakes, Abraham said, pointing out that those two bodies of water that already have issues with high amounts of phosphorus. The spreading has caused soil, water and air pollution, the complaint alleges.

Cook disputes such allegations and notes that there is also a grace period for when farms have to have all of their CAFO requirements in place. Willet Dairy was one of the first farms to sign up for the CAFO program when it was established in 1999, he added.

There are now 475 medium and 145 large permitted CAFO facilities in New York state, according to the DEC. In order to obtain a CAFO permit, these facilities must adhere to regulations for waste control and management, plans for manure storage and plans for nutrient management.

Carlton, of the DEC, confirmed that full implementation of the CAFO general permit comprehensive nutrient management plan isn’t required to be completed until Dec. 31, though she said dairies do have to show annual progression and that they can at no time violate water quality regulations.

The DEC has been working in partnership with the dairy to offer technical assistance and to ensure that it is fully compliant by that date, she added.

“They’re trying to do the right thing, and we’re trying to do the right thing,” Carlton said, noting that excessive manure spreading has not been a problem with Willet Dairy. “They really are doing everything they need to do. We really do not have any issues with them.”

But Abraham sees serious issues to consider, including a 2000 report by the Cayuga County Health Department that there were coliform and E.coli bacteria in nearby East Genoa private wells.

The DEC also fined the farm $15,000 after “thousands of gallons of liquid manure” spilled from one of the dairy’s lagoons into a tributary of Salmon Creek, according to a DEC consent order dated Nov. 25, 2002. The dairy reported the spill, which Carlton said was caused by a mechanical failure, and has since taken corrective measures to fix the problems.

Willet Dairy’s last formal CAFO inspection by the DEC and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was in June 2004. It shows that the dairy’s four facilities, which include manure lagoons totaling more than 40 million gallons (some of which were then listed as not used), received mostly satisfactory marks except for three items of concern in relation to construction activities and wastewater discharge from the maintenance facility.

At the heart of the citizen suit is a debate about big, industrialized farms versus small farms. These larger farms are the ones subject to all of the environmental regulations, Cook said.

To Abraham, however, the larger “factory farms” are no saints. Though many think these big farms are more efficient than smaller farms, at a certain size, a farm becomes unmanageable and cost prohibitive, he said.

“They make money by cutting corners and by getting the benefit of no monitoring,” he continued, alluding to the plaintiffs’ contentions with what they see as the DEC’s lack of sufficient monitoring of nutrient management plans. “Nobody’s watching them. It’s the classic fox in the hen house arrangement.”

Abraham said that Willet Dairy has not accepted settlements that he has offered; he declined to discuss the amount of the settlements.

“They’ve no doubt spent much more than we offered to settle,” Abraham said. “Now they’ve kind of dug themselves into a hole.”

Abraham is optimistic the plaintiffs will get some sort of liability judgment but expects Willet to appeal the case to the second circuit.

Cook is hopeful his motions will lead to the judge dismissing the case before it goes to trial. If the Clean Water Act claims are dismissed, the only thing the plaintiffs will have left is the nuisance claims, he surmised.

“I think it’s difficult to make a nuisance claim for agricultural practices,” Cook said, “when you’re living in an agricultural district.”